


Splotches

by ideallyqualia



Series: Rare Pairs [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 07:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2684552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Besides his freckles, Yamaguchi also has something else different about his skin: when he gets embarrassed, or nervous, or if he's just too warm, the skin under his eyes flushes. It's not a blush, and Yamaguchi doesn't think anyone really notices, but they do. Especially Kageyama.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Splotches

When the temperature dropped at the end of autumn, the heaters turned on. Yamaguchi secretly hated them, since he walked into class already wearing his jacket, and cooling down from moving around took forever to him. Being in heated air just made it worse. He always removed extra clothing at the start of class, but he still felt too warm, and he could feel his face heat up in the stuffy air. 

Every morning, whenever this happened, he pressed his hands to his face, on top of the warm skin. It was the part of him that heated up the most from the awkward transition of cold air to warm, instead of his nose or ears. This still happened to other people, but Yamaguchi had a bit of a heat problem. He was almost always warmer than everyone else, and he needed less clothes to bundle up. This kind of flush happened annoyingly often. 

At lunchtime, Yamaguchi walked beside Tsukishima to the vending machine, since Tsukishima forgot to bring a drink for himself. It was colder than usual outside, but Yamaguchi knew the trip wouldn't be long enough to require a jacket, so he went with just his shirt and pants.

Kageyama stood in front of the vending machine, frowning at the display. Hinata was behind him, crossing his arms and complaining in a nonsensical gush. No one else was around, and neither of them noticed that there was now a line until Tsukishima cleared his throat.

Hinata spun around, gasping their names and throwing his arms in the air in surprise. Kageyama didn't bother turning. He acknowledged them with a dissatisfied grunt, and continued to glare at the juice boxes.

"Yamaguchi! Why aren't you wearing a jacket?! It's freezing!" Hinata exclaimed, and Kageyama did look at that, his frown deepening as he stared.

"I'm not cold." Yamaguchi shrugged. This was actually perfect, for now, away from the heaters indoors. If he stayed too long, he would still become cold, but he was confident that his warmth was sufficient for a few minutes.

"What? Even Kageyama is wearing stuff, and he's the one around here who usually pretends nothing bothers him!" Hinata pointed at the setter, leaving his hand suspended in the air until Kageyama swatted it down. He held a juice box in his other hand, and Yamaguchi realized that he must have picked something when they didn't notice.

Kageyama returned his eyes to Yamaguchi, narrowing them as he took in Hinata's words. Yamaguchi would have been intimidated if he wasn't sipping on a straw, with small draining noises from sucking too hard.

"Yamaguchi doesn't need to wear anything else right now. He's warm enough," Tsukishima said. He used the annoyed tone he normally did whenever someone tried to tease Yamaguchi, although he had the feeling that they weren't trying to.

Hinata reached forward and grabbed Yamaguchi's arm, skimming his hands up and down and opening his mouth in wonder. Yamaguchi spluttered at the unexpected contact, but pulling away didn't cross his mind.

"That's creepy," Hinata said. "He's  _warm._ Really warm. Fireplace warm."

Hinata had acted too quickly for Kageyama and Tsukishima to do anything, but after a few moments, they both snapped at him.

"You're an idiot. Don't go around randomly touching people," Kageyama said. Hinata ignored his remark and tugged Kageyama's wrist down with his free hand, tugging it to Yamaguchi's arm.

"Feel it! It's creepy and weird!"

" _You're_  creepy," he spat out. He grunted and attempted to react, but his reflexes weren't as great as Hinata's, and he felt something warm under his hand at the end of Hinata's tugging. 

Feeling direct, skin-on-skin contact made Kageyama freeze. Hinata touching him wasn't a surprise, it was never a surprise; Hinata grabbed him and dragged him everywhere, all the time. Someone like Yamaguchi was an entirely different matter. Yamaguchi was a kind, quiet person--as quiet as Tsukishima could be, but in an entirely different way--and being Tsukishima's closest friend made him untouchable. He was untouchable, and Kageyama was touching him. 

Yamaguchi seemed too shocked to do anything, but Tsukishima sighed and calmly pushed Kageyama out of the way. He kept a blank glare on Hinata for a moment, and then snorted and stepped past to insert money into the vending machine.

Kageyama muttered something under his breath at Hinata, shaking his head and fist, radiating temper. Hinata didn't sound too afraid, and he gave an uneasy smile before ducking and running away.

"You huge piece of…" Kageyama turned his head to Yamaguchi, still gritting his teeth bitterly. He toned it down once he saw Yamaguchi stare back, and he gave a small irritated groan. "Sorry Hinata is such a dumbass," he mumbled after a few more moments. He hesitated saying "sorry," yet he didn't quite stutter.

"Wow, that's almost a decent apology. And you're not even the stupid one today." Tsukishima picked up the water bottle from the slot and twisted the cap off, choking a small hiss from the bottle as he did. "Any reason why you apologized when you didn't do anything?"

Kageyama quickly said  _No_ and stomped after Hinata.

"Huh." Tsukishima glanced at Yamaguchi. "Do you know what that was?"

Yamaguchi shook his head, his eyes as wide and confused as they had been when Hinata first shoved Kageyama's hand on his arm.

 

* * *

 

In practice that day, Yamaguchi felt hot. He thought he was sweating more than anyone else in the gym. Once it was over, he gave a loud sigh as he stepped into the refreshing night air, Tsukishima right behind him. 

"They really should turn off the heaters," Tsukishima said. He didn't seem overheated, but Yamaguchi appreciated whenever he complained for him.

Right now, they were both clean from showers. Yamaguchi still felt too warm, even with damp hair, and he hung his jacket on his arm, deciding to wear it later on in his walk home. If it had been cold enough to snow, then he didn't think he could have stayed this warm for long.

They could hear Hinata yell in the distance, alongside the clattering of a bike being unlocked and zooming off. Kageyama remained near the bike rack, and the two of them caught up to him. He was frowning at the ground, lost in thought.

"Kageyama, aren't you going home?" Yamaguchi asked. His voice caught Kageyama by surprise, although his reaction wasn't as explosive as Hinata's might have been. He just looked up with a startled expression, his shoulders flinching up for a moment.

He then wordlessly started walking, putting distance between them from behind. Tsukishima and Yamaguchi didn't talk much, and Tsukishima eventually returned his headphones to his ears, leaving Yamaguchi completely silent. 

It was during that silence that Yamaguchi heard Kageyama's rough voice speak up, although he couldn't tell if it was rough with frustration or his usual sulkiness. "Why are you still not wearing your jacket?"

He could tell Tsukishima didn't hear. He would probably butt in on his behalf, especially with this chance to rile Kageyama up a bit. Sometimes Tsukki didn't play music at all, and kept them on to pretend to not listen, but Yamaguchi could hear music playing this time. This left him with speaking by himself.

He wasn't actually scared of Kageyama. Knowing someone like Tsukki made him understand that many types of broody, sarcastic people were harmless. Some also weren't, but he had never seen Kageyama threaten or bully anyone, he just snapped if anyone talked to him for too long. It kind of reminded him of those animals that puffed up to intimidate others, but the extra size was just air or feathers.

"I'm still not cold." Yamaguchi tilted his head slightly so he could address him, but Tsukishima still didn't notice.

"That's really hard to believe." Kageyama's tone held the kind of warning his parents had when they were about to force him to add more clothes, and Yamaguchi felt irritation bubble.

"I don't care, I'm not putting the jacket on." 

"You should." His voice didn't change, so Yamaguchi couldn't tell if he was becoming irritated as well. It held the same gruff quality it always did, and that masked everything pretty well.

"I'm really not cold."

"God, you're as bad as Hinata." 

Yamaguchi felt himself grow warmer at the comment. Being compared to Hinata was embarrassing in a way, since Hinata was loud and obnoxious and stubborn. And Kageyama was close with Hinata, enough to recognize when someone else was acting like him, as if he thought about Hinata first. To his knowledge, Tsukki never did that with him; he used his own, original insults that didn't reference other people. 

"No I'm not." It was hard to bite out a few more words, and he felt himself lock up after that.  He wasn't scared of Kageyama, but oddly, he felt something well up in his chest, something that made him want to gasp for air and clench his jaw shut at the same time.

Kageyama mumbled something along the lines of "better not freeze," but he didn't outright say anything else, and he left after a few more minutes, turning down a different street to go home.

 

* * *

 

Yamaguchi began to notice Kageyama glaring out of the corner of his eyes. Or at least, he assumed it was a glare; Kageyama's default expression was a disgruntled glower, and a glare was part of the package. Like his voice, it was difficult to discern any hints of what was on his mind.

He couldn't understand why Kageyama did it. He had never done anything to make him mad, yet he would catch him looking, sometimes even in the middle of practice. Kageyama only gave brief glances in practice, and he still played as well as he usually did, never distracting himself from important parts. When Yamaguchi stood outside, though, Kageyama turned to look, and if he didn't have extra layers on, he narrowed his eyes.

After a few days of this, Tsukki started to voice his annoyance. He didn't do anything during practice either, but outside, he scoffed and told the king to find a new puppy to kick. 

In the middle of one of their arguments, Yamaguchi felt  _really_ warm, despite wearing only a shirt for his top half. The skin under his eyes, along the top of his cheeks, heated up. He could feel it burn along the skin bridging his nose, too, and it was so warm that he lifted his hands to press them against the heat, elbows angled downward. He normally did this since it felt pleasant to his fingers and palms, and his colder hands cooled him down. This was the kind of heat he appreciated, at least; body heat.

Kageyama paused when he noticed Yamaguchi do this, and Tsukki turned around as well.

"Is something wrong?" Kageyama asked, and for once, Yamaguchi could hear something slip in his voice.

"Uh, no?" His voice rose into a question, and he gulped.

"For a royal freak, I'm surprised you never noticed he does this," Tsukki said. "He does it all the time."

Yamaguchi removed his hands, now self-conscious from Tsukki's words, and Kageyama saw red dusting the skin under his eyes. It was too high on his face to be a blush, and it extended too far to his nose.

Kageyama twisted his mouth into a grimace. "Do you have a fever, Yamaguchi?"

"No, I'm just…I feel hot." Yamaguchi gripped the top of his shirt and moved it back and forth, poorly fanning himself. 

"It's not a fever, he seriously does this all the time," Tsukki said for him when he saw Kageyama open his mouth.

"Isn't that, you know,  _bad?"_

Tsukki shrugged, and Yamaguchi shook his head.

"I'm just really sensitive to heat, I guess." 

Tsukki started walking away, telling him that practice ended over ten minutes ago and that they should head home. Yamaguchi followed, but an extra set of footsteps let him know that Kageyama was trailing after them again.

This was only the second time Kageyama walked behind them. He took a different route home, Yamaguchi knew; one that probably coincided with Hinata's a little. Tsukki made more snarky comments to Kageyama, but he grew bored of it and let him follow in silence.

 

* * *

 

Yamaguchi isn't clumsy. He doesn't do reckless dives in practice like Hinata does, and he doesn't trip, roll, or land on his rear somehow from desperately trying to pull off a play--also like how Hinata does.

The volleyball, however, never has the same tact Yamaguchi does with balance. Even with the amount of time he secretly puts in to work on his float serve, the ball rarely listens. 

Today was a perfect example of that, in the middle of a practice match between the members of Karasuno's volleyball team. Suga was setter for the other side, leaving Kageyama on his team. Practice matches with just them meant that more of them could play and practice in as realistic a setting as possible, something Yamaguchi was grateful for.

When Yamaguchi's turn to serve came, he wasn't petrified, like he was during his first official match as a pinch server. Hinata had already ruined a bunch of serves before in this practice match, so his nerves were fine.

What wasn't fine was the volleyball wobbling so early in its trajectory, careening to the side and slamming into Kageyama's back. The sound was loud, echoing throughout the gym as everyone froze in silence, except for Kageyama's pained yelp.

Yamaguchi flinched backward, and he finally, truly felt scared of Kageyama. He felt hot all over again, and the same heat he usually felt in his face was now also in his arms, uncomfortably rattling him more. 

Hinata ran over to Yamaguchi, gushing and telling him to flee, or apologize, or hide behind him. It was out of sympathy, he thought, but Hinata would probably make anything involving Kageyama escalate.

Kageyama slowly turned around, grimacing and rubbing his back. He didn't seem angry, and  his lips were pinched together in pain instead of exasperation. It then shifted into something unreadable, something that was evidently stronger than his own pain when he saw Yamaguchi.

"Yamaguchi," Tanaka said after a beat of silence, "you look really red." Yamaguchi saw him point to his bare arms, and when he checked, he saw bright red splotches all over his upper arms, slipping past the short sleeves from view.

Yamaguchi scrambled to cover them up with his hands, sputtering and tripping over what to say. This happened if he was really embarrassed or anxious, and it only made him more embarrassed. If he wasn't too anxious, then only his face would respond, but if his arms were involved, then he was mortified. It prevented him from ever being able to lie or act, since he would stutter and flush and completely forget what he was pretending to do to begin with, and the biological lie detectors left his lie unbelievable.

Kageyama sighed, relaxing his shoulders and arms from the tense grip he had on his back. "It's fine," he mumbled, and he turned back around, waving his hand for Yamaguchi to continue serving. 

Yamaguchi was shaking now, and he knew he couldn't pull off another float serve with everyone else still watching him, checking for something he didn't understand. He went with an ordinary serve, quick to direct attention to anyone or anything else, and the game returned to normal. 

After a while, he tried to look back at Kageyama to see if he was mad or upset, but he couldn't tell. Kageyama was too focused on the game, and he never glanced back at him like he had been doing recently. Some of his movements were jerky, briefly halting from pain, and Yamaguchi felt a flare of guilt.

Once practice was over, Yamaguchi rushed to clean up. He wanted to be the first person out the door, aside from Tsukki. In his hurry, he did a sloppy job, and he ended up redoing his mopping, under Daichi's suggestion.

At the end, he found Kageyama behind them again in their walk home, and Yamaguchi was now twitching in nervousness, fidgeting with his hands. His arms were hot again, but he forced himself to wear his jacket, shielding the weird flush from view. The jacket was stifling now, and he wrung the collar away from his neck in an attempt to cool off.

"You're wearing your jacket today," Kageyama said, once Tsukishima pulled his headphones back on.

Yamaguchi coughed, clearing his throat. "I-I'm sorry about earlier, Kageyama." 

"No," he added immediately, "it's fine. Hinata does it way more often." 

There it was again, another casual mention of Hinata. He didn't understand why he was alert to his name, and only whenever Kageyama mentioned him, but it was starting to bother him. Almost as much as how much of a mess he made lately because of Kageyama.

"Well, don't get used to it." He lacked the conviction to say it like a scolding, but he heard Kageyama make a noise of acknowledgment.

Yamaguchi thought the rest of the walk would pass in silence, but Kageyama talked again minutes later. "Your serve is improving."

Tsukki broke into a coughing fit, suspiciously covering up a strange sound Yamaguchi didn't know how to describe. He then realized that the music wasn't on this time.

He didn't know how to handle all of this information at once, so he dipped his head down and stuttered out a  _thanks._ Kageyama didn't add anything else.

After he left, Tsukishima removed his headphones and stared at Yamaguchi with a slackened mouth. "He complimented you."

Yamaguchi pursed his lips in thought, his mind jumping around all over the place. "He compliments everyone, though. I mean, he tries."

"No, he only does it on the court, and he butchers it each time." Tsukishima returned his gaze forward, blank and silent for the rest of the walk.

 

* * *

 

A week later, Tsukki caught a cold. He tried going to school the first few days of being sick, but he felt too miserable to tough out school and practice in the worst of it, so he told Yamaguchi that he was staying home.

Without Tsukki, Yamaguchi spent most of school alone. He dreaded going through an entire day without him, since his presence put him at ease, even if he was rude to nearly everyone.

Lunch was boring and lonely, but practice was the truly awful part of the day. Yamaguchi had no one to stand next to silently, no snide tower to divert attention away from himself with. He stretched by himself, a bit away from the others, and he felt himself shrink, despite being much taller than Hinata and Nishinoya. Without Tsukki, it felt daunting being in a crowd of people. Not particularly scary, but still uncomfortable.

No one really noticed anything different about him. Suga asked about Tsukishima, but aside from Kageyama's glances, he was treated the same as before. Teammates occasionally talked to him, and he resumed practicing serves and receives.

Kageyama looked at him more today. He swiveled his head around some of the time, causing Hinata to mimic him in confusion, trying to see why Kageyama was staring. 

"Is something wrong with Yamaguchi today?" Hinata whispered.

Kageyama shoved Hinata with his shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?" he asked as he massaged his own shoulder. 

"Don't stare at people, it's rude."

Kageyama turned away, and Hinata glared at the back of his head, puffing his cheeks in a half-hearted display of annoyance. 

At the end of practice, Yamaguchi expected to walk home alone, but Kageyama still followed, closer than usual and to Yamaguchi's side, almost right next to him. The atmosphere was different than it was with Tsukki, despite Tsukki never talking much in their nightly walks. 

Yamaguchi felt nervous. He only hit him in the back once, and Kageyama seemed fine with that, but the strange looks he gave him never changed. They were more intense now, in fact, although Yamaguchi knew they weren't glares anymore. He didn't know what made them different from an actual glare, and he didn't know how he knew, either. It wasn't intuition, it was more from observation, seeing small details in his eyes and shoulders and mouth, but he didn't know when he became such an expert on Kageyama.

So even though he was certain he wasn't afraid of him, he was still way too nervous to be considered calm. He felt the familiar heat prickle his arms and face, and a flutter in his chest, and he wanted to groan and run away. 

"So Tsukishima's really sick?" Kageyama asked. His shoulders were hiked up a little, stiff, and Yamaguchi could tell that Kageyama felt awkward, even as he redirected his intense gaze at the floor instead of Yamaguchi.

"Yeah, he feels miserable. He'll be out for a few days." Yamaguchi let himself fall back, enough to walk directly beside Kageyama. Kageyama tilted his head at the movement, but he didn't mention it.

"You're not getting sick either, are you?"

"No…" 

Kageyama gave a small hum to himself in thought. Yamaguchi was busy trying to think to himself as well, wondering what to do and why this was happening. He never noticed them passing by Kageyama's normal stop until they both reached Yamaguchi's house.

Yamaguchi turned to Kageyama with his mouth twitching in shock. "Wh-why didn't you… Why did you come all the way here?"

He shrugged. "I didn't notice."

"You didn't…notice…?" he echoed. 

Kageyama sighed. "Listen, Yamaguchi." 

Yamaguchi could feel his heart thump up in his head, his arms and face on fire. Kageyama was standing close now, his hands squirming from where he crossed his arms. He could see him gulp and harden his frown, as if he could will away the light pink in his cheeks--an actual blush, without a doubt. 

"Do you like anyone?"

"M-me?" Yamaguchi played with his hands, looking at them. "Why? Do you… Are you, um, asking for…" He lifted his head in horror. "Are you asking for someone else?"

"What? No. Yamaguchi--"

"A girl, right?" 

"What--" 

"Is another girl asking about Tsukki?" 

Yamaguchi had no idea what he was doing, but the words tumbled out, on auto-pilot from every experience with romance and confessions he ever had having to do with girls asking about Tsukishima.

Kageyama gripped Yamaguchi's arms, even though he lacked anything long-sleeved to hide the splotches on them. "Yamaguchi," he said slowly, "this isn't about Tsukishima at all." He bit out Tsukki's name harshly, the same way Yamaguchi heard Hinata's name ring in his head when he thought to himself.

"Then…" He pointed at himself, eyes wide. 

Kageyama stared at him intently, nodding and keeping his hands locked on Yamaguchi.

"Your arms really do feel warm," Kageyama said. Yamaguchi felt his face grow hot, so hot that his head was going to melt into cotton candy or something else ridiculous.

Kageyama tilted his head down close to his shoulder, his eyebrows drawn together. He mumbled into his jacket, still loud enough to be heard, "Yamaguchi, can I kiss you?"

Yamaguchi stammered an answer that never actually came out, and he ended up nodding. 

Kageyama didn't seem to know what to do after he agreed, and he glanced up and down a few times, biting his lip. Yamaguchi felt a bit of relief at seeing Kageyama come undone at this, even if he was trying to hide it with another failed glower.

He felt a tug on his arms, and by the look on Kageyama's face as he staggered forward, he knew it was an accident. Their lips didn't smash together, since he just took a step instead of falling onto him, but they nudged together uncomfortably, their noses barely missing each other.

Yamaguchi tried to pull away immediately, but Kageyama kept his hands in place, and he slid his lips down to kiss him better. It didn't last longer than a few moments, and when Kageyama moved away, he pressed his hand over his own mouth for a moment.

"Are you kidding me? Even your lips are really warm." 

Yamaguchi's mouth opened and closed repeatedly, unable to respond, and Kageyama lifted his hand to Yamaguchi's face, right onto the cursed skin under his eyes. 

Whatever Kageyama felt made him look as if something was stuck in his throat, and when the hand fell, his lips replaced it. It was a quick peck, but the sensation left Kageyama startled and licking his lips, and Yamaguchi covered his mouth with his hand, squeezing his fingers together hard enough to pinch.

He had no clue what Kageyama was feeling, but he was looking to the side with a much darker blush. Yamaguchi took that as a good thing.

"W-would you like to come inside, Kageyama?" he asked after he lowered his hand to speak. "I think... I mean, you can probably stay for dinner." Kageyama didn't look at him when he nodded, still red and trying to frown to hide it, and Yamaguchi opened the door for him.

**Author's Note:**

> (General A/N that exists at the end of all my fics): I find unsolicited concrit really rude, I'm not looking for any. Please don't tell me someone was OOC/something happened you didn't like/it's too short/etc. in any bookmarks or comments.


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